DOJ Charges Man In Apple Cider Vinegar Attack On Ilhan Omar

The Justice Department on Thursday charged a man accused of spraying Rep. Ilhan Omar with a substance from a syringe.

Prosecutors charged Anthony Kazmierczak with a single count alleging he “forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and interfered” with the congresswoman. The court filing also says that Kazmierczak told an associate years ago that somebody should “kill” Omar, according to NBC News.

The affidavit says that authorities determined that the substance from the syringe squirted onto Omar was a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar. Authorities said that as Kazmierczak rushed the Minnesota Democrat, he appeared to say, “She’s not resigning. You’re splitting Minnesotans apart,” according to the Associated Press.

The chaotic situation occurred on Tuesday as Omar hosted a town hall in Minneapolis. The event was Omar’s first town hall of the year.

Omar was speaking from a podium when Kazmierczak rushed her and sprayed her with the mixture. Video shows the man then yell and point at Omar while a security guard grabbed him and wrestled him down. Members of the audience yelled in shock.

A woman who noticed Omar had been sprayed with an unknown liquid attempted to persuade the lawmaker to have it checked out, but Omar refused.

“We will continue. These f*cking a*sholes will not get away with this,” Omar stated. She later continued with the town hall.

After the incident, Omar blamed President Donald Trump.

“Since I’ve gotten into elected office, … every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said.

Trump suggested the attack on Omar was a setup in an interview with ABC News after the incident. 

“She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” Trump said, while admitting that he had not watched the video of the incident.

Omar and the Somali community of Minnesota have been in the spotlight recently because of social services fraud that have cost taxpayers an estimated billions of dollars. Much of the fraud money has been allegedly sent out of the United States to terrorists in Somalia, namely the Al-Shabaab terror group.

In recent weeks, Trump has drawn attention to the fraud scandal that has rocked Minnesota and the Somali community in the Twin Cities area. He has also resurfaced allegations that Omar married her brother and may have committed immigration fraud. Omar has denied the allegations.